What would MLK say today?

Published 11:20 pm, Friday, January 14, 2011

Dr. Martin Luther King speaks March 25, 1967 at the Chicago peace march.

Dr. Martin Luther King speaks March 25, 1967 at the Chicago peace march.

Photo: CHICK HARRITY, AP

What would MLK say today?

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Had an assassin's bullet not cut his life short April 4, 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would be 82 today.

Presuming he had lived to be an elder statesman, he would have taken to the podium in moments of tragedy and triumph, when passions brought him there or when asked to step up.

Though admitted conjecture, those who have studied him say King would be talking most about the economy and the lack of opportunity for today's youths, about wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and about senseless violence.

He'd rejoice in the election of an African American as president but caution that the dream has not been fully realized.

“None of us know what Martin would have said, but it would have been consistent with his life,” said Mary Frances Berry, a University of Pennsylvania history professor who will be a guest speaker at Monday's MLK March in San Antonio, the largest in the nation.

Berry, who knew King but best knew his wife, said it's important to remember what King died doing — supporting black trash collectors striking in Memphis for higher wages and the same treatment as their white counterparts.

Today, he'd be concerned about the futures of students who drop out, graduate but aren't college-ready, and those who make it through college but face joblessness, regardless of the color of their skin, she said.

Loston said he'd be disappointed that today's generations are not likely to supersede the accomplishments of the last.

In short, he'd be appalled, said Charles Gallagher, a sociologist at La Salle University in Philadelphia, especially about the nation's de facto segregation that prevents better understanding.

“What gets lost sometimes is King was talking about social and economic justice,” he said. King would remind Americans they're their brother's keeper and help reframe the issue of poverty to better recognize its face.

Though African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately poor, he said, “There are more poor white people in the United States than any other group.”

Carey H. Latimore IV, assistant professor of history at Trinity University and co-chairman of the African American Studies Program, said King would view immigration through the lens of poverty, too.

“He would have seen immigration as an economic issue, about why they are coming across the border and the division between Latino and African Americans on the issue.”

And because King was the primary target of the FBI's counterintelligence program led by J. Edgar Hoover, “King would have tremendous questions about invasions of privacy connected to the war on terror,” Latimore said.

Similarly, King would deplore racial profiling that has targeted Muslims and efforts to single out people for their religious beliefs or skin color, he said.

Questions about the citizenship of President Barack Obama and the children of illegal immigrants would have spurred King to object to proposed changes to the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship for anyone born in the United States.

Gallagher believes King would be disappointed a majority of Anglo Americans believe the goals of the civil rights movement have been achieved, as a recent Pew Research Center poll found.

Stephen Amberg, associate professor of political science at UTSA, said much of King's legacy as a human rights champion has been missed.

“People stop in 1963 with the great speech at the Lincoln Memorial, or the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But that wasn't the end of his campaign,” he said.

“He was a champion of workers' rights and union rights. He was an outspoken opponent of American wars. He was against militarism.”

Whatever he might have said, King's agenda would have been long. He'd be tired.

“Martin never thought than any of this was easy,” Berry said. “He knew it was hard.”

She recalled a photo of a young King in a hotel room, talking on the phone, dozens of people “asking this and asking that,” she said. “He looks totally exhausted.